Babe Ruth

"Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game"

The Life of the Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth was born on February 6, 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents were George Ruth Sr. and Kate Ruth. Babe Ruth real name is George Herman Ruth Jr. He got the nickname "Babe" when Jack Dunn signed him on to the Baltimore Orioles, and the other players called him "Jack's newest babe" and Babe stuck. Babe Ruth was then traded by Dunn to the Red Sox. July 11, 1914 was Babe Ruth debut into the major leagues. Ruth was one of their best pitchers on the team, and the Soxs wanted to turn him into an everyday player. Since Babe was a very well rounded, excellent player, many teams wanted him to play for them.

On December 6, 1919 he was traded to New York Yankees were he would help them win seven pennants and four world series. The Yankees before Ruth came had never won a title, and when Babe came to play for them in the 1920's everything changed for the team. When Ruth came to the Yankees he became full-time outfielder, and would forever change the way baseball would be played. Ruth changed baseball from a slow, low scoring game to a fast pace, high scoring games. He beat his own baseball records each year in batting averages, home runs, runs, and slugging averages. Babes best year was in 1921 he got 59 home runs, 171 RBI, 177 runs, a batting average of .376 and had a .846 slugging average. When the Yankees moved to their new stadium in 1923 they said it was “The House that Ruth Built”.

He was then traded for the last time to the Boston Braves. When he retried in 1935 he held 56 Major League Records. Ruth's most respected recorded was his 714 home run record that he held for years after he died. In 1936 he was one of the first five baseball players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Yankees retried Babe Ruth's jersey number "3" in 1948 when Babe visited their stadium for the last time because he was dying of tumor in his neck. On August 16, 1948 Babe Ruth passed away. Even though Ruth passed away over 60 years ago he is still considered one of the best major league baseball players.